Friday, January 27, 2012

Much of lifecan never be explained, only witnessed.'- Rachel Naomi Remen, MD

NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami
waves on the Kenyan coast, has formed a strongbond with a giant male century-old tortoise in an
animalfacility inthe port
city of Mombassa , officials said.

The hippopotamus,nicknamed Owen and weighing
about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept downSabakiRiver into the Indian Ocean , then forced back to shore
whentsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife
rangersrescued him.

'It is incredible.
A-less-than-a-year-oldhippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century
old, and the tortoise seemsto be very happy with being a 'mother','
ecologistPaula Kahumbu, who
isin charge of Lafarge Park , told AFP.

'After it was swept away and lost its
mother,the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a
surrogatemother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a
strong bond.

They
swim, eat and sleep together,' the
ecologistadded.'The
hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it followedits
mother.If somebody approaches the
tortoise, the hippo becomesaggressive, as if protecting its biological
mother,' Kahumbu added

'The hippo is a young baby, he was left at
avery tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay
withtheir mothers for four years,' he explained.

'Life is not measured by the number
ofbreaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath
away.'

This is a real story that shows that
ourdifferences don't matter much when we need the comfort of
another.